'Glee' honors Cory Monteith with the mostly effective 'Quarterback'

The tribute songs weren't all successful. Artie and Sam singing "Fire & Rain" was a mistake. For this sort of tribute, I really disapprove of emotionally piggy-backing on a song that was already written as an expression of a specific singer-songwriter's pure grief. It's a shortcut. [The same is really true of "Seasons of Love," but I guess it feels different for one musical to lift an emotional beat from another musical.]

As I already mentioned, Lea Michele's "Make Me Feel Your Love" was unbearable (in the desired way, not in a bad way).

And "Glee" stayed true to itself by making sure that characters still behaved in the way we've been accustomed to and still got in little bits of humor.

Emma still passed out joke pamphlets after Tina found a way to make the wearing of black all about her.

Santana still began her song for Finn by calling him "Squishy Teats" and saying that he's in Heaven with his new friend Fat Elvis.

Puck still lashed out with anger before exposing his emotional vulnerability. The locker room conversation with Coach Beiste and Puck was another good non-singing scene.

And Sue still says inappropriate and Sue-like things under we're supposed to be shocked by her sincerity and humanity. Unfortunately, we've seen Sue do this kind of character reversal in episodes too many times before becoming serious about much less. It would have hit harder if we'd never seen the exposed side of Sue Sylvester before.

Sue also had the line that nearly torpedoed the entire episode for me.

In her second confrontation with Santana, Sue crumbled and became regretful about the idea that Finn had died without ever knowing that she liked him. We'll leave aside that it's a wildly egotistical moment in a scene where her shield was supposed to be down and I think it's safe to guess that whatever mysterious way Finn died, he probably died without giving a hang whether or not Sue Sylvester liked him.

It's here that I'm afraid I had to call shenanigans. Cory Monteith was not Finn Hudson, but for the purposes of this episode, there is no distinction to be drawn. I return you one more time to the conflation of Finn and Cory in the episode title and the hashtag and in the emotions we were feeling tonight. Chances are pretty good that Finn Hudson didn't die of a drug overdose, but Cory Monteith did. And that means that while there surely is no happy ending, there absolutely is a lesson that can, should and MUST be learned from his passing. I don't think it's just one lesson either. This isn't something as banal as, "Kids, don't use drugs." It's a much more complicated and sad lesson about addiction, personal demons and the reality that success doesn't lead to happiness. There are many lessons here and as long as people were intermingling sadness about Cory with sadness about Finn, it feels dangerous to pretend otherwise. It's one thing for "Glee" not to use this episode as a teachable moment -- Nobody is saying that Finn's death had to be used as a cautionary tale about drug use -- but to deny a teachable moment exists isn't good. Delete that one line -- "There's no lesson here" -- and my quibble magically vanishes. [Though for a educator, surely there's a teachable moment in any tragic death. Life doesn't lack for lessons to be taught.]

And it's not like the writers (and FOX) didn't know perfectly well that there's a lesson. The episode ended, as it NEEDED to, with an addiction hotline number and a message from several stars. I get that the writers didn't want that lesson to weigh in on the episode and the character of Finn, but that's what Kurt's opening voiceover was for. Sue's line was just a blunder. [It's a lot harder to do the "lesson" thing right than to skip the lesson entirely. I probably would have preferred an episode in which the "Glee" writers acknowledged that this was an important opportunity to convey an important message to an impressionable audience, but I only would have preferred it if they did it well. I preferred this episode to a badly done version of a "lesson" episode.]

I'm also not sure why the episode ended with Will. To me, it doesn't matter whether we're talking about Finn or Cory, we were supposed to end with was Lea Michele. The episode had to end with "He was my person" and with the plaque with the Finn quote, "The show must go all over the place, or something." I just didn't think this episode, which was supposed to be about Finn/Cory, needed to end up being about Will being a rock and having to eventually find a way to cry. At least he didn't rap.

Having returned to "Glee" for "The Quarterback," I'm probably not going to check back in again any time in the future. As somebody who does what I do, I had to check in to see how they handled this episode and as somebody who watched "Glee" for 70-ish episodes, I had to see how they honored Cory and Finn.

There's no perfect way to do a thing like this, but I think the "Glee" team got it mostly right and "mostly right" is a pretty high bar for something this hard.

A long-time member of the TCA Board and a longer-time blogger of "American Idol," Dan Fienberg writes about TV, except for when he writes about movies or sometimes writes about the Red Sox. But never music. He would sound stupid talking about music.

Comments

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Yeah, I was weary when I saw your name and that you were the one writing this, especially after reading your tweets, I was a bit worried. But I think you did a good job, Dan.

Thankfully the episode wasn't too exploitative. I certainly was expecting montages of Finn laughing and singing and hugging everyone in glee club during songs, but they held back on and just showed a few pictures and a Finn quote that was very in character and humorous. There was still snark and comedic lines, and Lea was spared to be in just a couple key scenes. They didn't go for the most emotional songs they could've. I still barely stopped tearing up so i'm glad there was some restrain. I'm happy with it. I wish Dianna had been there though, that's the one thing that felt more off.

"There's no lesson here" Are you sure the writers meant that line the way you took it? It didn't occur to me that that was about the way Cory died, but her conversation with Santana.

"It's a much more complicated and sad lesson about addiction, personal demons and the reality that success doesn't lead to happiness."That's sad. I'd like to think he was happy (he seemed happy), and that acting prolongued his life and gave him a chance (he'd opened up about it because he wanted teens to be aware of those risks and get help), but in the last year he relapsed and addiction got the best of him... His smile always seemed so genuine.

yeah, sue was clearly responding to santana saying finn's death was a lesson she (sue) needed to learn about being nicer to people. the extra-textual info we as viewers know about the actor's death wasn't a part of the scene.

There were many moments when it seemed they were refering Cory instead of Finn, like Kurt saying everyone kept asking about his death but it didn't matter, what mattered was his life. That wasn't one of those moments for me, and I find it contradictory that the writers would send that message. But who knows.

I know Dianna Agron was doing press for The Family or whatever, but she couldn't take one day to film one scene. I mean, Santana didn't need half the screentime of the episode, Finn/Quinn were my favorite couple on the show. Quinn needed to be there. Glee shots out of order all the time, they could have filmed something, somehow and added it in. She didn't even need to be in Lima, she could be too heartbroken to go and just show her at college crying or something.

Why are you making stuff up, Guyitc? Dianna and Lea are good friends and Dianna attended the memorial for the cast and crew, there are photos of the cast meeting up a lot the days after his death, and she was there too. As for the relationship with Ryan nobody knows, but for this, it's as simple as he didn't ask her to come back, and she didn't ask to be back. Too bad, but it doesn't make either parties horrible people.

LOL Yeah "reports". Well, give me one legitimate source. Not even asking numerous, just one. The last I heard from Dianna, she wasn't asked to be back, she but she's willing to come back in the future. She's friends with the cast. She was on DWTS supporting Amber, she said nice words about Lea in her letter when Cory died etc

In his defense, googling " dianna agron ryan murphy feud" does give back many returns, even though most of them are denials that there is one. He shouldn't believe in gossip but he did not make this up.

Because the Glee fandom is imense and crazy. People like to speculate that Ryan Murphy is a horrible boss and they find it strange that Dianna comes back less than the other cast members, when it's probably because her career has taken off the most out of the cast. But she's still saying she'd come back, Ryan just didn't ask her back for that particular episode, which sucks but it is what it is.

Spreading rumors (not to say made up lies which is more like it) as if there's any truth to them is wrong and defamatory. Nobody from cast and crew has ever said a word about Dianna's relationship with Ryan, so there is no valid source at all, only hurt Quinn fans that blame Ryan for Dianna not coming back because they want to see more of the character.

I thought it was the best they can do but I still couldn't get over my own cynicism about the whole thing. Also the fact that it blurred so much between being a tribute to the character and the person at the same time.

I also thought the scene between Mark Saling and Dot Marie in the locker room was pretty bad in terms of acting

They mostly used first takes to not put the cast through too much. Mark allegedly had a very hard time having to film. A lot of the cast and crew kept leaving in tears, so they ended up just filming one take unless it was absolutely necessary to film again.

The only thing I would have liked to see was to have them not lip-synch over pre-recorded songs. I understand the logistics, but I was completely taken out of Rachel's song because of how badly synched her performance was with the audio. Lea Michele is a great actress with a great voice. There's no reason she couldn't have sung that live. I think it would have added that extra bit of authenticity that Glee so often lacks.

The do sing the songs when filming, it's just that in post-production they swap it with the recorded version and they don't always marry up perfectly. I agree that it would have been better to use the live version most of the songs in this episode, but not Rachel's. You can see how much Lea is crying during her performance, I would guess that that the actual singing during the live take was barely audible through it. The pre-recorded song was still emotional and beautiful.

Have to disagree about "Fire & Rain." That song has helped me through numerous losses and it's the first thing I thought of when I heard they were doing a tribute episode, and I was excited they were going to include it. To me it felt very genuine and organic because it is part of my personal grieving process "in real life."

I don't watch this show and only caught the last few minutes of this episode, but if I caught my adult husband/boyfriend crying alone with his face buried in a former student's letterman jacket I would be out the door in a heartbeat. There's something creepy about that student teacher relationship.

This is what happens when you don't know the backstory. Finn and Will had become much more than just a student and a teacher. Finn and Will had really become close friends especially with Finn coming back and helping Will teach the Glee club after he graduated. They weren't student and tacher anymore. They were practically family. Your comment is really ignorant.

I understand why people feel that the episode should have ended with Rachel, not Will, mourning the loss off Finn, but I feel that is losing th distinction between the characters. I think everyone is losing that distinction. Yes, this was a tribute episode to Finn and, in turn, Cory Monteith, but as Andi said above, you need to understand the backstory behind each character's motives in the episode. Rachel had a crush on Finn for a long time, which eventuated in a lovely relationship, but viewers need to remember that Mr Shue discovered Finn for the Glee club. He was instrumental in guiding him through school and helping him on his path to eventually become a teacher. Finn even referred to him as a 'father figure': 'someone to show me what a real man is' (or something like that. Their relationship is just as strong, and therefore the scene was just as powerful. The episode was a great tribute, reflecting on how each characters' relationship with the character of Finn was affected by his death.

For the love of god, does nobody proof this column? There are many errors, but I cannot even parse the end of this sentence: >> I get that the writers didn't want that lesson to weigh in on the episode and the character of Finn, but that's what Kurt's opening voiceover before. << Anybody have a suggestion?

Thanks Dan, and sorry for my irritated tone. While trying to parse that sentence I was also dealing with HitFix's bug-of-the-day, which is that the "Captain Phillips" popover appears, and must be manually dismissed, every three or four seconds. Literally. (At least, that's what was happening on my iPad — the only way to keep it down to every 15 seconds or so was to NOT TOUCH THE SCREEN. Totally maddening, and it made me more brusque than I intended!)

Yeah, Will, that bit sucks too, but the worst part of it was just how frequently the popup/popover kept appearing. Literally every three to four seconds. I was only ever able to type one or two words before the popup would show up again, needing to be dismissed. If I had been home I would have switched to my desktop, but I was posting from a Starbucks so I was stuck with the iPad!

With Santana it was just a one night stand (his first time), and they had a rocky relationship. Quinn was his girlfriend twice, so she definitely deserved focus over Santana. I'm sure this would affect Quinn immensely as she was very in love with him the first two seasons.

Yeah, but Finchel was a constant with their flirty duets and occasional kissing util they got together. Then they broke up and got together again a couple times throughout. But they were Glee's main couple. And Lea and Cory were together in real life as well.

Dan, I did the same thing and checked in after being away for quite a few episodes. The true-blue high school emotions and communal content that was there in the first two seasons had been replaced by subliminal politicizing and general looniness not seen since the merciless warping of Courtney Cox on Friends. Yes, Will's breakdown should have taken place the night before, and a better scene would have shown he and Rachael hanging up the jacket just below Finn's plaque. Furthermore, Santana's excessive screen time made me consider it was compensating for Quinn's absence, whether intentional or not. As false and as off-putting as the assault on Sue sequence unfolded, Santana reading the short letter with Kurt perfectly completed her arc. Puck singing to the empty chair was possibly the second saddest moment after the devastating scene in Finn's room. Why is Mike O'Malley wasting time on sitcoms? Does his agent need to put him through the Michael Chiklis conversion process? More Justified glory, less Yes Dear muck!By the end of the episode, I was no longer trying to guess whether the actors were in character or grieving out loud. I could feel the absence on screen, best explained by Sue's lament over Finn's (and yes, Cory's) potential and lost future. God bless us, every one.

When Glee added the "humorous" part of Emma handing Tina those pamphlets, I feel like it shouldn't have been Tina's character but some random extra. From the very first Seasons of love scene, the actress who plays Tina was already tearing up real tears, and during Lea's performance Tina was openly crying. That's not acting but actual tears and it's unfortunate how that one "humorous" scene cheapened those tears and made them seem not genuine.